Strong Performances Mark First Day of European Youth Olympic Festival

By Oene Rusticus

LIGNANO, Italy, July 5. THE European Youth Olympic Festival has started in the Italian city of Lignano, a large tourist city near Venice. At this EYOF, the best athletes of 48 European countries will compete in 11 different sports. The swimming meet is high-level preparation for next year’s European Youth Championships, as the swimmers are aged 15-16 for boys and 13-14 for girls, one year younger than the eligibility to participate in the EYC.

The swim meet breaths an Olympic atmosphere, with Sydney Olympic star Domenico Fioravanti as a special guest to open the meet. He said: “The EYOF is an important event, which gives the young athletes the chance to grow and enrich their international experience to take part, in the future, in the great sport competitions: the Olympic Games, the World and European Championships.”

As predicted, the British contingent is one of the strongest, with three gold medals, including the women’s 400 freestyle relay. Ceri Unwin opened the competition for Great Britain in the 400 freestyle, taking over the lead at the 250-meter mark from Russia’s Elena Sokolova. Unwin won in a strong 4:16.46, while Sokolova just out-touched home crowd favorite Cinzia Sciocchetti with a 4:19.86 to a 4:20.18.

Ellen Gandy accounted for the second victory for Britain in the 100 butterfly, clocking 1:02.60. Carla Campo from Spain and Orsolya Tompa from Hungary battled for second, which was decided at the finish with a 1:03.34 to 1:03.54 for Tompa. Gandy also swam the second fastest leg in the freestyle relay, with only her anchor swimmer Lauren Collins faster. Germany finished second in the freestyle relay, just ahead of Hungary.

Yoris Grandjean from the French part of Belgium won the 100 freestyle in a stunning upset over Russia’s Sergey Fesikov, who seemed to be the favorite after the heats. Grandjean’s 51.27 was well ahead of the 51.99 of Michele Santucci, who finished slightly ahead of Fesikov (52.06).

Italy got its first gold medal when Damiano Lestingi won the 200 backstroke, giving the packed swimming arena what it hoped for. Only Yannick Lebherz from Germany could stay close (2:03.71 to 2:04.48). Anton Anchin won the bronze medal.

Dinko Jukic led the field in the 200 individual medley from the start, allowing his competitors to narrow the gap only on the breaststroke. His 2:07.13 was almost a second ahead of Britain’s Jonathan Turner-Cook. Mateusz Matczak from Poland won the battle for bronze in 2:09.94.

Germany had the best men’s team in the 400 freestyle relay, leading from the start and finishing in 3:30.22. The battle for silver and bronze was won by Italy (3:32.19) and Russia (3:33.54).